Breaking the Chains

Hello, ladies and gents. I haven't written in quite a while. This summer has been very intense. Mostly because of the coronavirus. I'm actually not even that busy and should've been reading and writing a lot more, but hey, sometimes it's hard to get in everything that you want to do in life. This is one of those times even though ironically most people are unemployed and sitting at home due to the virus. Meanwhile, the rest of us poor saps are working because we're essential workers. 

I've met a lot of new friends recently. They're all good chaps and they've really inspired me in a lot of ways. Through them, I've gained a lot more confidence in myself and have been pushing myself to be more outgoing socially. Through them, I realized that in a lot of ways I haven't seen myself in the way that I should, and that other friends, coworkers, and people sometimes drag me down for their own purposes. It was quite a realization. 

It made me see myself in a different light, a better light. I realize the need to stay humble in life but I also see the realization that sometimes you have to act like you're better simply because you are. It's difficult to explain in words. Famous people would get it. Successful people would get it. Well, now I get it. Took a long time to get through but I made it. Now, what do to with it? Only time will tell. 

Saying all that, I've also sort of unlocked new parts of myself within. This is where I go all metaphysical. In the past couple of weeks, maybe the last month or two, I've reached a sort of meta plane realization. I've gone back to my teenage roots even though I thought I've surpassed it and will never revisit it. I started playing guitar a lot more, started listening to only classic rock, and have been more outgoing socially with everybody I come in contact with. Because I read all the time, my conversation skills are the highest they've ever been, making me a hit pretty much anywhere I go. Although I'm half deaf and it's hard to listen to people I've learned to do it with extreme efficiency. My voice sounds cool and it's not as loud and overbearing as in the past, where I used to have trouble hearing myself. Life is good. 

Because I listen to so much music and really listen and focus hard on the music and lyrics, I've become a man of a thousand songs, literally. I plan on studying all my favorite classic rock music, really getting a feel for the songs, and writing my own songs in a somewhat similar vein in terms of harmony. I plan on getting back to recording music again soon. I'm still doing my jazz jam with the saxophone player Jason but I'm sort of losing interest in jazz. Mostly because I'm not really a jazz guitarist, but I'm talented enough to play it and fake it. But I'm no Wes Montgomery or Jim Hall, that's for sure. But I sure as hell will try. 

Finding yourself in the time of COVID feels different. Who am I really? It's a hard question that most people end up asking themselves their whole lives. I see myself as a painted bird, I have to choose my surroundings wisely or things will just not work out the way I'd like them to. 

That being said, the virus is still going strong, the protests are surging, and we have a Trump Gestapo in Portland but there is a silent majority working against Trump. I'm a big news junkie and read it every day, I recommend you all do the same. 
  
"I'm the last of the good old fashion steam train." 

Goodreads

In the last two months, I spent a lot of time reading. Here's a list of the things I read and what I plan on reading in the near future. 

The Plague by Albert Camus
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Marquez
Slan by A.E. Van Vogt 
The Day They H Bombed Los Angeles by Robert Moore Williams
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame collection 
Bring the Jubilee by Ward More
The Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals by Kant
Currently on page 800 out of 1400 pages in Plutarch's Lives
A little bit of Don Quixote 
The Tao Te Ching
Parts of Zhuangzi
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Parts of a 90s cyberpunk novel called Vurt

Plan on reading/finishing:

Plutarch's Lives
Don Quixote 
War and Peace by Tolstoy
The Bamboo Cutter 
Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein
Being and Nothingness by John Paul Sarte 

It's a list of merit methinks. I've made a decent dent into my own personal library collection. I hope to complete the collection sometime in the near future. Reading has been the one thing that has helped me the most during this pandemic, lockdown, and quarantine. Let's hear it for the great interior life activity of reading! 

From the Earth to the Moon

From the Earth to the Moon (French: De la terre à la lune) is a science fiction novel written by French writer Jules Verne in 1865, the oldest science fiction I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Its quite archaic with its primitive (but at the time quite spot on) scientific facts about ballistics, science, and astronomy. 

The book tells the story of a Gun Club creating a spaceship (the Colombiad Space gun) that blasts off to the moon at the end. The Gun Club's President, his armor making rival, and French poet are the ones who get launched out in the nether of space. Everything in between is mostly scientific facts and happenings going on the United States and around the world based off the Gun Club's actions.  

Although one could say that all the hard 'facts' or science in this book is pretty unrealistic and probably goes off to the realm of surrealism it must also be noted that it is quite close to reality given the science of the day (1865). To my understanding of science and physics I look at the facts of this book and see it for its imaginative creativity, and I also see it for its literal realism, for the facts are quite close to reality according to online sources. I'd like to call it a sort of magickal realism if you will. From there you can go into the idea of metaphysics but the book is perhaps too science driven to go to that extreme. However, you can't talk about man leaving his place of origin and exploring other planets without entering into that realm.

"The story is also notable in that Verne attempted to do some rough calculations as to the requirements for the cannon and, considering the comparative lack of any data on the subject at the time, some of his figures are surprisingly close to reality. However, his scenario turned out to be impractical for safe manned space travel since a much longer muzzle would have been required to reach escape velocity while limiting acceleration to survivable limits for the passengers." (wiki)

Another thing to note is that the story takes place some time after the Civil War, and the Gun Club is based in Baltimore, lead by Union scientists, who were formerly soldiers. Some even had their limbs blown off in battle. There's descriptions of men in the club with hooks and such. 

This book is a part of a series and its sequel is called Around the Moon, which describes everything once they actually land on the moon. This first book is the preparations and the launching-FIRE! So I have my work cut out for me, I still have another novel to read. Thankfully, this book was only one hundred and fifty-three pages so its quite a short read. 

One more thing to note is that this book had quite an influence on popular culture-cinema and literature. This book inspired the movie A Trip to the Moon, the first science fiction film ever (which is how I learned about this) and H.G. Wells made a reference to it in his 1901 novel The First Men in the Moon. 

Its quite a fast and enjoyable read. I thought that I would find the archaic writing and old school science facts to be boring, quite dull, but instead I found it to be imaginative and exciting. After reading Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination this was a good follow-up, ancient science fiction from the aftermath of the civil war, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, Around the Moon, which I will promptly order from my local library at some point in the near future.  

If you like old school text and science fiction this will be something you will want to check out.
  
“How many things have been denied one day, only to become realities the next!”